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2020–21 UEFA Nations League
The 2020–21 UEFA Nations League will be the second season of the UEFA Nations League, an international association football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UEFA. The competition will be held from September to November 2020 (league phase), June 2021 (Nations League Finals) and March 2022 (relegation play-outs). The defending champions are Portugal. Format On 24 September 2019, UEFA announced that a revised format would be used for the 2020–21 edition, the second season of the competition. The 55 UEFA national teams will be divided into four leagues, with Leagues A, B and C featuring 16 teams each, divided into four groups of four teams. League D will feature 7 teams divided into two groups, with one containing four teams and the other containing three. The teams are allocated to leagues based on the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League overall ranking. Each team will now play six matches within their group, except for one group in League D which will play four, using the home-and-away round-robin format on double matchdays in September, October and November 2020. This format ensures that for almost all groups, teams in the same group play their last matches at the same time. It also increases the number of total league phase matches from 138 to 162, and minimises the number of friendly matches. In the top division, League A, teams compete to become the UEFA Nations League champions. The four group winners of League A qualify for the Nations League Finals in June 2021, which is played in a knockout format, consisting of the semi-finals, third place play-off, and final. The semi-final pairings, along with the administrative home teams for the third place play-off and final, are determined by means of a draw. The host country will be selected among the four qualified teams by the UEFA Executive Committee, with the winners of the final crowned as the Nations League champions. The video assistant referee (VAR) system will be used in the Nations League Finals. Teams also compete for promotion and relegation to a higher or lower league. In Leagues B, C and D, the group winners are promoted, while the last-placed teams of each group in Leagues A and B are relegated. As League C has four groups while League D has only two, the two League C teams which are to be relegated will be determined by play-outs in March 2022. Based on the Nations League overall ranking of the fourth-placed teams, the first-ranked team will face the fourth-ranked team, and the second-ranked team will face the third-ranked team. Two ties will be played over two legs, with each team playing one leg at home (the higher-ranked team will host the second leg). The team that scores more goals on aggregate over the two legs will remain in League C, while the loser will be relegated to League D. If the aggregate score is level, the away goals rule is applied, with extra time played if away goals are also equal. The away goals rule is again applied after extra time, with a penalty shoot-out used to decide the winner if no goals are scored during extra time. Tiebreakers for group ranking If two or more teams in the same group are equal on points on completion of the league phase, the following tie-breaking criteria are applied: # Higher number of points obtained in the matches played among the teams in question; # Superior goal difference in matches played among the teams in question; # Higher number of goals scored in the matches played among the teams in question; # Higher number of goals scored away from home in the matches played among the teams in question; # If, after having applied criteria 1 to 4, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 4 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 6 to 10 apply; # Superior goal difference in all group matches; # Higher number of goals scored in all group matches; # Higher number of away goals scored in all group matches; # Higher number of wins in all group matches; # Higher number of away wins in all group matches; # Lower disciplinary points total in all group matches (1 point for a single yellow card, 3 points for a red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for a direct red card, 4 points for a yellow card followed by a direct red card). # Position in the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League access list. Criteria for league ranking Individual league rankings are established according to the following criteria: # Position in the group; # Higher number of points; # Superior goal difference; # Higher number of goals scored; # Higher number of goals scored away from home; # Higher number of wins; # Higher number of wins away from home; # Lower disciplinary points total (1 point for a single yellow card, 3 points for a red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for a direct red card, 4 points for a yellow card followed by a direct red card). # Position in the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League access list. In order to rank teams in League D, which is composed of different sized groups, the results against the fourth-placed team in Group D1 are not taken into account for the purposes of comparing teams placed first, second and third in their respective groups. The ranking of the top 4 teams in League A are determined by their finish in the Nations League Finals: # The winner is ranked 1st; # The runner-up is ranked 2nd; # The third-placed team is ranked 3rd; # The fourth-placed team is ranked 4th. Criteria for overall ranking The overall UEFA Nations League rankings are established as follows: # The 16 League A teams are ranked 1st to 16th according to their league rankings. # The 16 League B teams are ranked 17th to 32nd according to their league rankings. # The 16 League C teams are ranked 33rd to 48th according to their league rankings. # The 7 League D teams are ranked 49th to 55th according to their league rankings. 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification The Nations League will be partially linked with European qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, with the format confirmed by the UEFA Executive Committee during their meeting in Nyon, Switzerland on 4 December 2019. The qualifying structure will depend on results from the Nations League, although to a lesser degree than the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying play-offs. The ten group winners after the first round (group stage) will qualify directly for the World Cup. Then, the ten group runners-up, along with best two Nations League group winners based on the Nations League overall ranking which have not yet directly qualified or reached the play-offs, will advance to a 12-team second round (play-offs) to be conducted in two single-match knockout rounds, from which an additional three teams will also qualify. Schedule Below is the schedule of the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League. The relegation play-outs of League C are scheduled on the same dates as the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying play-offs. If one or more of the teams due to participate in the relegation play-outs also qualifies for the World Cup qualifying play-offs, the relegation play-outs will be cancelled and the teams in League C ranked 47th and 48th in the Nations League overall ranking will be automatically relegated. Seeding All 55 UEFA national teams will enter the competition. Due to the format change of the competition, no teams were actually relegated from the 2018–19 season. In addition to the group winners, the second-placed teams in Leagues C and D, along with the best-ranked third-placed team of League D, were also promoted. In the 2020–21 access list, UEFA ranked teams based on the 2018–19 Nations League overall ranking, with a slight modification: teams which were originally relegated in the previous season were ranked immediately below teams promoted prior to the format change. The seeding pots for the league phase will be based on the access list ranking.The seeding pots, draw procedure and fixture list procedures were confirmed by the UEFA Executive Committee during their meeting in Nyon, Switzerland on 4 December 2019. | |- style="vertical-align:top" | | |} The draw for the league phase will take place on 3 March 2020, 18:00 CET, in Amsterdam, Netherlands. While the draw typically has restrictions for prohibited clashes, winter venues and excessive travel, no conditions will apply to the draw given the allocation of the teams to both leagues and pots. League A Group A1 Group A2 Group A3 Group A4 Nations League Finals Bracket Semi-finals |time= |team1=Winners Group 1/2/3/4 |score=Match 1 |report= |team2=Winners Group 1/2/3/4 |goals1= |goals2= |stadium= |attendance= |referee= }} ---- |time= |team1=Winners Group 1/2/3/4 |score=Match 2 |report= |team2=Winners Group 1/2/3/4 |goals1= |goals2= |stadium= |attendance= |referee= }} Third place play-off |time= |team1=Losers Match 1/2 |score=Match 3 |report= |team2=Losers Match 1/2 |goals1= |goals2= |stadium= |attendance= |referee= }} Final |time= |team1=Winners Match 1/2 |score=Match 4 |report= |team2=Winners Match 1/2 |goals1= |goals2= |stadium= |attendance= |referee= }} League B Group B1 Group B2 Group B3 Group B4 League C Group C1 Group C2 Group C3 Group C4 Relegation play-outs | }} | }} |} League D Group D1 Group D2 Overall ranking The results of each team will be used to calculate the overall ranking of the competition. External links * Category:2020–21 UEFA Nations League 2020-21 Nations League